I am a incoming highschool senior with a 4.1W 3.8UW GPA planning to major in Computer Science. (I heard UCs are test blind but I got a 1460)By the time I graduate, I will have 7 APs and 2 honors 4s and 5s on AP Tests. I am thinking of applying to all the UC schools. For extracurriculars, I started playing the piano since 4th grade and won many competitions, so I decided to show my impact through creating an application that teaches students how to play the piano and tutor. I also have 150hours of volunteering and am going to start freelancing by creating website during the summer.
What are my chances of getting into UCI, UCSD, etc?
With that GPA (especially the weighted one), it might be a bit difficult at the top UCs for CS (UCB, UCLA, UCSD). However, you could offset that if you earned national-level or international-level awards. I predict that your application will bank heavily on your essay. If you can craft a story about how playing the piano has been your passion for a long time and you poured yourself into it, you can create a really likeable personality and schools like UCI and UCD might be clear targets for you, that is if you are in state. If you are out of state, it will be much more difficult. CS is a really competitive major and you should apply to other schools besides to UCs, even if you are in state.
This summer, do what truly interests you, but make sure it is connected to your previous interests. You most likely will have to mention your freelancing in your essay, and if you can show it is part of your interests gradually evolving over time (and connect it to your other interests such as piano), it can boost your likeability in your essay. However, if it feels like an interest that emerged abruptly, it could come off as you doing activities for the sake of college, which AOs do not like at all. Even if it is an interest that genuinely emerged and might be detached from your previous interests, remember that your goal is to get your foot in the door first.
If that is your real name, I encourage you to change it to something more anonymous. How Do I Change My Username?
Calculate your UC GPAs following the guidance here. Make sure you read the directions on which courses receive weighting. Do not assume that because something is called “honors” at your HS, it is considered honors by the UC system.
Finally, CS is an extremely competitive program to get into. Are you open to other majors? If not, are you open to non UCs?
As @lkg4answers advised, calculate your UC GPA and then you can compare it to GPA admit ranges for UCI and UCSD.
CS is probably the hardest way to get into the UC’s - are you 100% sure that is the path you want to pursue? Or do you think it’s just the quickest way to make money once you graduate? I’d spend some time thinking about other major selections if you are set on those particular UC’s - my guess is that your stats are probably not quite high enough, especially without many EC’s related to CS (except your app). As @insert_creative_name states, your PIQ’s will be super important, especially at these 2 UC’s.
Edited to add: if you are set on CS you’ll need to look at ALL the UC’s including Merced and Riverside, and don’t forget the CSU’s, many of which have great CS programs!
Note that some popular CSUs like CPSLO, SJSU, and CPP are very competitive for admission to CS. However, most of the CSU campuses are not impacted, with CS as a non-impacted major, so they will be easy admits.
Here are the admit rates if available for CS at the UC’s and several CSU’s. Note that the only updated 2024 CS admit rate is for UC Berkeley based on data from Ms Sun’s UC Blog.
Campus
CS
UC Berkeley
1.9% 2024 preliminary EECS- 7.6%
UC Davis
No data but estimated <20% Selective Major
UC Irvine
16.8%Impacted Major
UCLA
3.1% Impacted Major
UC Merced
91%
UC Riverside
32% Impacted major
UC San Diego
No data but estimated 5% Selective Major
UC Santa Barbara
5% Impacted Major
UC Santa Cruz
60% Impacted Major
Cal Poly SLO
9% Impacted Major
Cal State Long Beach
31% Impacted Major
San Diego State
28% Impacted Major.
San Jose State
31% Impacted major. CSU GPA of 4.3 needed to meet Threshold.
For the UC’s, the only Safety/Likely is UC Merced. Target: UC Santa Cruz and Riverside. For the rest of the UC’s, they are Reach schools for CS.
I would look to your local Cal State especially if it is not impacted as a Target/Likely. So any Cal state except Cal Poly SLO, Cal Poly Pomona, San Diego State, Cal State Fullerton, Cal State Long Beach, San Jose State and Cal State Los Angeles can be considered a Very Likely/Safety based on your academic profile.
UCs are extremely competitive for CS. Look up Stanley Zhong. Make sure to have legitimate safety schools. You have a strong profile, but 4.5+ students get rejected from all “top” UCs all the time (Cal, UCLA, UCSB, UCSD, UCI, UCD). This is not meant as discouragement, you definitely have a chance. But have a backup plan. Good luck!
Thank your for your feedback it was really helpful. I am also interested in looking for the says for data science, comp eng, etc. What website can I get these stats from?
There is no specific website where the data is available and several campuses are not transparent about their admit rates. The data I listed is from a lot of digging and many times making projections based on enrollment and yield data.
Here is what I have for Computer Engineering and Computer Science and Engineering along with Data Science. The data is from 2023 with the exception of EECS for UC Berkeley.
Campus
Computer Engineering/CSE
UC Berkeley
EECS 7% 2024
UC Davis
<20% Selective Major
UC Irvine
28% CE/CSE 24%
UCLA
Comp Eng 3.7% CSE 3.2%
UC Merced
91%
UC Riverside
42%
UC San Diego
No data but <10% Top 5 most popular declared major
UC Santa Barbara
19%
UC Santa Cruz
57%
Cal Poly SLO
21%
Cal State Long Beach
31%
San Diego State
47%
San Jose State
31%
Campus
Data Science
UC Berkeley
9%
UC Davis
No Data but approximately <20% Capped/Selective major
UC Irvine
28%
UCLA
11% Does not admit by major but into College of L&S
UC Merced
New major no data
UC Riverside
49%
UC San Diego
No data but approximately <10% Selective major
UC Santa Barbara
32% admit rate for College of L&S which does not admit by major- Stats/DS major
UC Santa Cruz
Major not available
Cal Poly SLO
31% projected Stats/minor DS
Cal State Long Beach
DS Major not available
San Diego State
38% Stats with DS emphasis
San Jose State
No admit data but need a 3.7 CSU GPA to meet 2024 Threshold
Do note that data science is quite a bit different from CS. Many of my brother’s friends went to schools like Berkeley while majoring in data science, expecting it to be pretty similar to CS. It ended up being a pretty different subject.
I would also point out that the UCs seem to put great weight on being the first generation to go to college and on getting underrepresented groups into college.
Looking at the Scoir Scattergrams from my daughter’s affluent CA high school…our admission rates to individual UCs are ALWAYS 10% to 25% LOWER than the gen pop acceptance rate to the same individual UCs. And our admitted students have much MUCH HIGHER stats than the admitted average for those same schools.
Looking at Scoir Scattergrams for non-UC schools…we usually have a MUCH HIGHER admit rate than the university’s average.
This is a small sample size (and focused on one particular high school), so take it with a grain of salt. But for this one affluent high school…the trend was very noticeable across all of the UCs.